Member Avatar for goose134

Hi all
Im going to buy a new pc in a week, 14sept, my propsed spec:

XP SP2 might upgrade to Vista Q1 2007 after SP1
intel core duo 2 e6600 ~2.4 x2
enermax 460 watt
320 or 500 samsung spinpoint and external W/D 320gb hdd
asus p5n e sli mobo
2x 1 gb of ram ddr2 800 not sure yet best company crucial?
the problem is the graphic card...

i want to try and future proof the sys as much as i can as i am going to
uni... but i want to be able to play dx10 games such as Wic, COD 4, BIA hells highway and m2tw kingdoms and MOA AB.

from what ive read many state that the current dx10 cards will not be able to handle the next gen dx10 games and i must buy vista currently £119..OUCH
i currently have a 128 geforce 5900 xt and i want to be able to play the latest games at full preferably..

i have looked at the 8600 gt xxx or the 8600 gts xfx, really unsure and

i have heard sli doesnt actually increase the performance anyway

i would also like to know if a 256 card would be sufficent to play these new games... MY BUDGET-500-600 £
Any advice would be REALLY appreciated
Kind Regards Goose

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jbennet

Dani AI

Generated

Quick framing: future‑proofing for the DX10 era is less about snagging a specific model number and more about choosing hardware that won’t be the first thing to throttle after a year of higher‑detail textures, anti‑aliasing and higher resolutions. The two most important practical goals are (1) enough GPU memory and memory bandwidth to hold big textures and AA buffers at your target resolution, and (2) a GPU with strong raw shader/fill throughput so new DX10 effects don’t immediately push it into a CPU or memory bottleneck.

How to compare cards in practice: decide the resolution and quality you really want to run (for example 1280×1024 vs 1680×1050 or higher) and compare cards by their effective memory bandwidth (bus width × memory clock), pixel/texel fill rates, and frame‑buffer size. Texture quality and anti‑aliasing are the things that eat VRAM fastest; moderate settings can be fine on smaller frame buffers, but higher resolutions or aggressive AA need both more VRAM and wider memory buses. Look for cards with larger buffers and roomy memory buses if your monitor/AA targets are high.

SLI/CF notes and system balance: multi‑GPU setups can deliver big FPS gains in some titles, but rely heavily on driver/game profiles and can introduce microstutter or inconsistent scaling. For long‑term, fewer headaches usually come from one more powerful card rather than two midrange ones—especially if aiming to play reliably on new releases. Keep the rest of the system balanced: a solid PSU (quality over cheap wattage), adequate system RAM, and a CPU that won’t bottleneck the GPU matter as much as chasing the top headline GPU spec.

Buying tips: prefer cards with good aftermarket coolers and vendor warranties, check that the card fits your case and motherboard slots, and review recent driver update frequency from the vendor. If choosing between a last‑generation high‑end model and a new low‑midrange card, the former often gives longer useful life for gaming. Tie these choices to ’s board and CPU: a strong single GPU now, with room to add a second card later if needed, is a practical future‑proofing path.

Member Avatar for jbennet

Vista SP1 comes out in the first half of 2008 (which is when XP SP3 comes out and it goes into extended support)

you want:

  • intel core2 or amd x2 (pay the extra and get the best one you can afford you will notice it). Do not under any circumstances buy a celeron , semperon or core solo.
  • t2gb ram if you plan to run vista(yes, crucial are good) - 1gb on vista runs about as well as 256mb does on xp (crappy). 2gb on vista runs about the same as 1gb on XP
  • at least a 450w psu (550 is better for DX10 cards). Graphicswise you want a geforce 8 series (the new ATI cards are iffy) and yes you need vista to play any DX10 games . DO NOT BUY HOME BASIC! (it sucks home premium is better) you need a 256mb graphics card for DX10 games (but 512 if you want to be futureproof). And yes, SLI isnt that great.

look here:

http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce8.html

you should buy the 8800 or 8600 (dont get anything less or games will be bad quality)

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